Exam question 2 · Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid: the mermaid re…

With reference to the text, to what destiny does the little mermaid ultimately ascend upon leaving the vessel?

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: destiny, little mermaid · What happens: do, ascend, leave · To what, where: little mermaid, vessel

This is exam question 2 of lesson 881 «Andersen's Fairy Tales, The Little Mermaid: the mermaid refuses the knife and rises among the daughters of the air» of the books course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	With	with	ADP	_	2 reference	case
2	reference	reference	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 what	obl
3	to	to	ADP	_	5 text	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 text	det
5	text	text	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 reference	nmod
6	,	,	PUNCT	_	8 what	punct
7	to	to	ADP	_	8 what	case
8	what	what	PRON	PronType=Int	root	root
9	destiny	destiny	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 does	nsubj
10	does	do	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 what	acl:relcl
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 mermaid	det
12	little	little	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 mermaid	amod
13	mermaid	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 does	obj
14	ultimately	ultimately	ADV	_	15 ascend	advmod
15	ascend	ascend	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	13 mermaid	acl:relcl
16	upon	upon	SCONJ	_	17 leaving	mark
17	leaving	leave	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	15 ascend	advcl
18	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 vessel	det
19	vessel	vessel	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 leaving	obj
20	?	?	PUNCT	_	8 what	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	do	present	destiny	the little mermaid		vn act-114-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent mermaid=Eventuality
2	ascend	present	the little mermaid not said here		ultimately property	vn escape-51.1-1-3 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	leave	gerund	the little mermaid not said here	the vessel		vn keep-15.2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent vessel=Theme

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

To the company of the daughters of the air, by means of many accumulated good deeds performed over centuries

The tree, 19 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	ADP	_	3 company	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 company	det
3	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 daughters	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 daughters	det
6	daughters	daughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 company	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 air	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 daughters	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 means	punct
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 means	case
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	of	of	ADP	_	17 deeds	case
14	many	many	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 deeds	amod
15	accumulated	accumulate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 deeds	amod
16	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 deeds	amod
17	deeds	deed	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 means	obl
18	performed	perform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 deeds	acl
19	over	over	ADP	_	20 centuries	case
20	centuries	century	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 performed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present			to the company of the daughters of the air; of many accumulated good deeds	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot to company=Attribute
2	accumulate	participle				vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	perform	participle	many accumulated good deeds not said here	century		vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

To the company of the daughters of the air, by means of accumulated good deeds

The tree, 15 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	ADP	_	3 company	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 company	det
3	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 means	obl
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 daughters	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 daughters	det
6	daughters	daughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 company	nmod
7	of	of	ADP	_	9 air	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 air	det
9	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 daughters	nmod
10	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 means	punct
11	by	by	ADP	_	12 means	case
12	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
13	of	of	ADP	_	16 deeds	case
14	accumulated	accumulate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	16 deeds	amod
15	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 deeds	amod
16	deeds	deed	NOUN	Number=Plur	12 means	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	mean	present						to the company of the daughters of the air; of accumulated good deeds	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot to company=Attribute
2	accumulate	participle							vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 3

To the company of the mermaids, through faithful service to the crown

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	ADP	_	3 company	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 company	det
3	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	6 mermaids	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 mermaids	det
6	mermaids	mermaid	NOUN	Number=Plur	3 company	nmod
7	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 service	punct
8	through	through	ADP	_	10 service	case
9	faithful	faithful	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 service	amod
10	service	service	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 company	conj
11	to	to	ADP	_	13 crown	case
12	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	13 crown	det
13	crown	crown	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 service	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

To the heavenly company of the daughters of the air, by means of accumulated good deeds performed in warm lands

The tree, 20 words

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	ADP	_	4 company	case
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 company	det
3	heavenly	heavenly	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 company	amod
4	company	company	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 means	obl
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 daughters	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 daughters	det
7	daughters	daughter	NOUN	Number=Plur	4 company	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	10 air	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 air	det
10	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 daughters	nmod
11	,	,	PUNCT	_	13 means	punct
12	by	by	ADP	_	13 means	case
13	means	mean	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
14	of	of	ADP	_	17 deeds	case
15	accumulated	accumulate	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 deeds	amod
16	good	good	ADJ	Degree=Pos	17 deeds	amod
17	deeds	deed	NOUN	Number=Plur	13 means	obl
18	performed	perform	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	17 deeds	acl
19	in	in	ADP	_	21 lands	case
20	warm	warm	ADJ	Degree=Pos	21 lands	amod
21	lands	land	NOUN	Number=Plur	18 performed	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	what, whom	where	other	roles by
1	mean	present			to the heavenly company of the daughters of the air; of accumulated good deeds	vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot to company=Attribute
2	accumulate	participle				vn herd-47.5.2 «NP V»: agent=Theme
3	perform	participle	accumulated good deeds not said here	warm lands		vn performance-26.7 «NP V»: agent=Agent

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/books/881-pg27200-part92/e2/